A Goddess In Oz
by Miko2
Summary: Belldandy visits the Land of Oz to deliver a wish, but finds the Emerald City under a spell of sleep... will crossover with a limited number of other anime...
1. Chapter 1

**A Goddess in Oz**

Mark A Davis / Miko

CHAPTER ONE

Far away from the world that we know, yet close for those who have a warm heart and an adventurous spirit, there exists a magical fairy land known as Oz. It is surrounded by the Deadly Desert, whose sands are so toxic that they kill anything they touch. Nor does Oz appear on any map, for it is protected from discovery by powerful magic. Yet many have travelled from our world to Oz. If you have read any of the books detailing their adventures, then you know a bit about Oz already.

Oz is divided into four countries. To the North is the land of the Gillikin people, sometimes referred to as the Land of Purple Mountains. The people there favor the color purple, and are ruled by Joe King and Queen Hyacinth. To the South is the land of the Quadlings, sometimes called Rosewood Meadows. Here they favor the color red, and are ruled by Glinda the Good, the most powerful sorceress in Oz. To the East lies the country of the Munchkins, sometimes called the Land of Sky Blue Waters. Blue is the color they favor, and their rulers are King Cheeriobed and Queen Orin. In the West is the land of the Winkies, a people who favor the color yellow. Their Emperor is Nick Chopper, the Tin Woodsman, who dwells in a castle of tin. Their country is sometimes referred to as the Golden West.

In the center of Oz is the Emerald City, where green is the favored color. Here is where Ozma resides, the fairy Princess who is acknowledged supreme ruler over the land of Oz. Many others dwell in this city who are either famous or remarkable, or often both. These include the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow, the Sawhorse, Scraps the Patchwork Girl, Jack Pumpkinhead, H.M. Wogglebug, T.E., and too many others to name. But of course, if you have heard of anyone in Oz, then it is Dorothy, the little girl who once lived in Kansas but who is now a Princess in Oz and Ozma's very best friend.

Princess Dorothy has a large and lavish suite within the royal palace that is second only to Ozma's, and at the moment that is exactly where she was, asleep in her bed. A small black dog was asleep next to her. This would have been normal, except that it was late afternoon, and Dorothy never slept so late.

In fact, the entire palace was as quiet as a cave. There were no people discussing matters of state within the throne room, nor were any children or animals at play in the gardens. No chambermaids could be seen cleaning or polishing, nor did any guards pace the halls. In the royal kitchens, which were normally filled with hustle and bustle as the cooks prepared the next meal, nothing stirred, and all was quiet.

Throughout the Emerald City, the sun shown down on streets and gardens where nothing moved and no sound was made.

Presently something in Dorothy's room began to move. At first, it was only a shadowy flicker in the mirror over her vanity -- just a slight swirling of mist, which appeared in the reflection of the room only, and not in the room itself. The mist began to swirl faster, and the funnel grew larger, and then the mist moved from the surface of the mirror and out into the center of the room. It swooped and spun about and coalesced into the shape of a girl. A moment later, the mist has faded, leaving only the girl standing on the emerald green carpet.

She was tall and very beautiful. She appeared older than Dorothy or Ozma, perhaps as old as Glinda herself. She was dressed in beautiful flowing robes, much like those of Ozma or Glinda, and her beautiful light brown hair was gathered into an elaborate pony-tail in back and flowed down past her waist. If you had not seen her come out of the mirror, you might have mistaken her for one of the fairy rulers of this marevelous land. But while she was no mortal, she was also not a fairy girl. Her name was Belldandy, and she was a goddess.

One of Belldandy's jobs was to grant wishes to those who were deemed deserving. This was the reason she had come to Oz, as you shall soon see.

Belldandy looked about the room. She spotted the sleeping Dorothy, and glided silently to the side of the bed. She placed a hand on Dorothy's shoulder, and then snatched it back with a small cry. She studied the girl a moment, then placed a hand on Dorothy's forehead.

After several moments, Belldandy withdrew her hand. A slight frown disturbed her normally serene face.

"Dorothy is asleep," she said quietly. "And this is no ordinairy sleep -- it is some kind of magical spell."

Belldandy looked about the room, somewhat perplexed. "I certainly can't grant a wish to a little girl who remains asleep," the goddess said. "Normally, an enchanted sleep is broken with a kiss from a prince... but I wonder if I could possibly find a prince anywhere about?"

She glided softly across the carpet and into the next room. Taking in the wide spaces, the rich carpeting, the marble columns and the beautiful tapestries that covered the walls, Belldandy said, "Well, this _does_ appear to be a palace of some sort. Perhaps I _will_ find a prince, if I look for one."

However, everywhere that Belldandy went in the palace was still and quiet, and the people that she found were all magically asleep just as Dorothy was, and could not be awakened. She walked through wide, empty hallways and passed through various rooms, including a large kitchen and an even larger library. Everywhere she went, she kicked up a fine layer of dust. It seemed that nobody had disturbed this palace for weeks, at the very least.

"Someone has placed an enchantment on the entire palace," Belldandy said, "and perhaps on the whole city. I wonder what I shall do now?"

"You could help break the enchantment," someone said.

Belldandy looked about. "Hello? Who said that, please?"

"Up here," came the voice. Belldandy looked up, and there on the wall she saw the stuffed head of a great elk. At least, it very nearly resembled an elk. There were subtle differences, for it was in fact the head of an Ozzian creature, and not an elk from Earth.

The glass eyes of the creature sparkled in the dim light of the hallway. They seemed to be watching Belldandy, and she shivered slightly. It was very spooky, the way the creature stared at her, although really a goddess had nothing to fear from a stuffed and mounted animal head.

The creature rolled its eyes. "Good day to you," it said. "My name is the Gump. I was once a living creature, but now I am as you see me, a head hanging on the wall. I won't bore you with all the complex details. And you are?"

"My name is Belldandy," she said, bowing. "I'm a goddess. I've come to deliver a wish, only..."

"Only the city is under an evil enchantment," the Gump replied.

"It certainly seems so," Belldandy said. "Can you tell me what has happened here?"

"Well," the Gump said, "I don't have all the details, but it seems that a wicked witch, one that I have never heard of before, has placed the Emerald City under a powerful spell. Everyone who is capable of sleep is under the enchantment, and will continue to sleep until the spell is broken. She cast it during the annual celebration of Ozma's coronation, and thus many heads of state were also present her in the Emerald City, including Glinda, the most powerful sorceress in Oz. She even made sure that all of the citizens that can't be put to sleep were otherwise dealt with. For example, the Tin Woodsman is quite rusted and the Scarecrow has been de-stuffed. I know all of this, because she has been ranting and raving about it ever since. You see, she forgot to leave anyone about to act as her servant, and so she must cook all her own meals, and do everything herself."

"I see. But it seems that she has left you alone."

The Gump waggled his ears. "She doesn't know about me," he said. "Few do. In any case, I'd make a poor servant, as I can not move from this spot. It seems that Bungle, the Glass Cat, has also avoided the witch, for I've seen her skulking about. I suppose her glass body and pink brains are good for something, after all."

"A Glass Cat? How wonderful!"

"Yes, I suppose so," the Gump said. "Once you find her, I'm certain she'll tell you all about it. But I do sincerely hope that you can break the witch's spell. The palace is quite boring with everyone asleep."

"I will certainly do my best," Belldandy said. "But I won't be able to break the enchantment without knowing more about it."

Saying goodbye to the Gump, Belldandy continued on her way. Presently she came upon a very strange metal man, standing still in the middle of a hallway. His body was as round as a ball and made completely of burnished copper, as were his thin arms and legs, with their thick elbow and knees joints. His round head was perched on a short copper neck, and gave him a very comical appearance.

Belldandy clapped her hands together in delight. "My! Why, you almost look like Banpei!" she exclaimed, then added, "an older-style Banpei, anyway. You could be Banpei's grandfather!"

Indeed, the metal man looked much like the beloved little robot Banpei, who had been built by Belldandy's sister Skuld..

Belldandy walked around the strange metal man, examining him carefully. "You don't have an electric cord or battery pack like Banpei does. I wonder how you work?" But then she found a key on the copper man's back, along with a card which contained printed instructions.

"I see," she said, reading the card. "You need to be wound up, like a grandfather clock." Belldandy immediately took the key and set about winding up the clockwork man. First she wound the spring under his left arm, which controlled his thinking, then she wound the spring under his right arm, which controlled his speaking.

"Thank you for res-cu-ing me!" the clockwork man immediately exclaimed.

"Oh!" Belldandy cried out. "Why, you're very welcome!"

"I am called Tik-Tok," the metal man said. Belldandy finished winding up his action spring, located in the center of his back, the man turned and gave a low bow. "I am at your ser-vice," he said.

"My name is Belldandy," the goddess replied. "I was sent here to grant a wish to a girl named Dorothy, but she's been magically enchanted to sleep. It seems the whole palace, and the city outside, has been affected."

"It was a wick-ed witch who did it," Tik-Tok said. "I do not know her name, or where she came from, but she seemed to want re-venge on Glin-da and Oz-ma."

"I see," Belldandy said, nodding. "Then... who are Glinda and Ozma? The Gump mentioned them, but I've never heard of them before."

Tik Tok's copper face did not move and could show no expression or emotion, but somehow the clockwork man managed to look surprised. "Why, Glin-da is the good witch of the South, and the rul-er of the Quad-lings, while Oz-ma is the prin-cess rul-er of the Em-er-ald Ci-ty and al-so rul-er of all of Oz."

"So Oz the name of this land?"

"Of course. Have you nev-er heard of Oz?" Belldandy shook her head no, and Tik Tok added, "It is a ma-gi-cal fair-y land, you know. A clock-work man such as my-self could not ex-ist oth-er-wise."

Belldandy only smiled at this. "That all depends," she said. "You're much like a little robot friend of mine, and he doesn't need to live in a fairy land to survive."

"In-deed? I would ve-ry much like to meet this fel-low some day."

"That would be fun," Belldandy said. "I'm sure you and Banpei would get along wonderfully. But at the moment, I must find a way to grant Dorothy her wish. I can't do that until I break the spell, so I guess we'd better find this witch."

"Per-haps you could wake the Scare-crow," Tik-Tok said. "Un-like me he is a-live, but is not flesh and blood so he does not norm-al-ly sleep. The witch froze him in-stead. Al-so Nick Chop-per, who is a woods-man made of tin, and Jack Pump-kin-head, and Scraps the Patch-work girl, and the saw-horse, and the Glass Cat. There are man-y peo-ple in Oz who ne-ver sleep. I would feel much sa-fer then."

With Tik Tok's help, Belldandy soon found the Tin Woodsman and oiled his joints. After he thanked her, the three of them located the Scarecrow's body. They carried it out to the stables, where they were able to stuff it full of fresh straw.

In the stables, they found the wooden sawhorse, who had been nailed to the floor. Once they released the nails he was nearly as good as new. Jack Pumpkinhead's body was also trapped here in the stables, tied down with straw thrown over him, so that they almost didn't see him. His head had been removed and smashed, but the Tin Woodsman retrieved a fresh pumpkin from Jack's pumpkin fields, which were not too far away, and with his ax he quickly carved a new head and set it upon Jack's shoulders.

"Thank you very much," Jack said. "It is very distressing to lose one's head."

As for Scraps, the Patchwork Girl, they found her down in the palace laundry room, where she had been heavily starched until she couldn't move, and then pinned to a clothesline. With the flat side of his trusty ax, the Tin Woodsman beat her about the head and shoulders (and also the arms, waist, hips, and legs), and soon she was able to move about.

"Thanks for the beating!" Scraps said. "It didn't hurt, and I feel better already!" She did a somersault and sang,

"Scraps, she is a brilliant lass!

"But she was stiff as a plaster cast!

"The Woodsman swung is mighty ax,

"And gave poor scraps a thousand slaps!"

Belldandy laughed out loud. "What a fuuny girl you are!" she said.

"I hope you mean that I'm amusing.

"It's not my looks that you're abusing?"

Scraps said.

"Oh no," Belldandy replied. "I meant that you made me laugh. You're a very colorful person."

"Unlike that wicked old witch," Scraps said. "Why, she's been moaning and complaining day and night. For while I couldn't move, I could still hear her when she passed by. She was very angry that nobody was around to wait on her hand and foot -- but that was her own doing!"

"That's what the Gump said. She certainly didn't plan very well," Belldandy said. "I wonder where she has gone off to?"

"I've gone nowhere, little girl!"

The voice which spoke was raspy, dry and crackled, as if the Deadly Desert itself were speaking. Belldandy turned about and beheld an old woman with wrinkled, leathery skin and a long, hooked nose. She was as ugly as a gnarled old tree stump, and wore black and red striped stockings, a mustard yellow dress, and a dirty blue shawl. Her silver-green hair was tied into two thick braids that stuck out from either side of her head, and her face wore a scowl as sour as nine-month-old milk.

She waved one hand in the air before her in a complicated pattern, all the while muttering:

"Oogle Agle, elsnore fleep!

"Now forever you must SLEEP!"

"Oh!" Belldandy exclaimed. "Why, you must be the wicked witch!"

"Be-ware, Miss Bell-dan-dy!" Tik Tok exclaimed. "She is cast-ing a spell on you!"

The witch's eyes widened slightly, and she stared in confusion at Belldandy, who was clearly unharmed. Then she began to wave both hands about wildly, chanting:

"Furzle burzle burble clow!

" You Shall fall asleep right now!"

"Can you tell me why you've put everyone to sleep?" Belldandy asked. "Also, if you could, please tell me how to break the spell?"

Tik Tok stepped in front of the goddess, as if to block any attack on her. Given that he was barely half of Belldandy's height, he was only able to block her from the waist down, but it was still a very brave thing for him to do. In any case, Belldandy was once again completely unaffected by the spell.

The witch cursed under her breath, then, hopping in a circle on one foot, she waved both hands and her other foot about in the air, shouting:

"GARMIDTH! WIDNOW! SLEETHAACK! FRITH!

"SOUND ASLEEP YOU'LL BE FORTHWITH!

"THRIDNAR! WILWENTH! GARMANTHAY!

"THIS COMMAND YOU MUST OBEY!"

"I'm afraid magic of that sort won't work on me," Belldandy said, smiling sweetly. "I'm not mortal, you know, nor am I a fairy."

The witch stared at Belldandy, confusion and anger evident in her expression. "By all that is vile and twisted!" she exclaimed. "My magic has no affect on you!"

"Yes, that's right. As I just said. My name is Belldandy. What is your name?"

"You'll not be getting that from me," the witch rasped nastily. "You know as well as I that names grant power!" As Belldandy nodded in polite confusion, the witch added, "What manner of being are you then?"

"I am a goddess first class, unlimited."

"A goddess!" the witch exclaimed in surprise. She drew back fearfully. "What are you doing here? You have no right to be here!"

"I came to deliver a wish."

"Well then, you won't succeed. Everyone here is asleep -- asleep forever! So you'd better just go back to where you came from!"

"But I can't do that," Belldandy said. "The Yggdrasil System has decreed that Dorothy, Princess of Oz, shall be granted a wish. I am required to grant her her heart's desire."

"Miss Bell-dan-dy, do you think it is wise to give her so much in-for-ma-tion?" Tik Tok asked cautiously.

"But are you sure that's right and proper?" the witch asked craftily. "Surely here, in the land of Oz, Princess Dorothy has everything her heart could desire? She has her aunt and uncle, and none of them will ever grow old. She has all of her friends here, and they include the most noteworthy, powerful and influential people in the realm. She has everything she could want to keep herself entertained and amused. Why would someone like Dorothy need a wish? Indeed, why should she deserve it, when there are many poor and unhappy children who surely are more deserving?"

"It is not for me to say who deserves a wish and who doesn't," Belldandy said. "That is up to Yggdrasil, which follows the will of the Almighty. I merely grant the wish to the chosen person. But as for Dorothy, she can hardly have everything her heart desires so long as she and all of her friends are under your spell of sleep."

"And so they shall stay!" the witch yelled at the top of her lungs. "FOREVER!

"Ragmidth! Suuthow! Garmanthay!

"Send me somewhere far away!"

And with that, the witch spun about and vanished.

Belldandy frowned.

"What a disagreeable woman," she said.

"Most wicked witches are," the Scarecrow said.

"I wonder what has made her so disagreeable? If I could find out, perhaps I could help her, and then she would help us lift this spell."

"That's not very likely," the Scarecrow said. "A wicked witch like her is just a bad person, period. You won't find her good side, for she doesn't have one."

"Oh, but you don't really believe that, do you?" Bell replied.

"Perhaps when she was young, she may have had a kinder heart," the Tin Woodsman said. "But now it is shrivelled with selfish ambition. She cares for nothing but herself. Even though I hold no ill will to any person or living thing, I can assure you that a wicked witch like her is beyond redemption."

"Nobody is ever beyond redemption," Belldandy said firmly. "But one thing's for certain. This place isn't very safe with a disagreeable witch like that about. It will take time to learn how to break her spell. I don't want to leave you here, but I wonder where I can take you that will keep you safe? They really don't like us to bring mortals into Heaven, you know"

"On that score, you have no fear," the scarecrow said. "All of us are immortal, or nearly so. Nick Chopper can be battered and rusted, but a little oil and a good tinsmith always has him back in tip-top shape. As for me, barring a mishap with fire, I need only replace my straw every so often and repaint my face, and I'm good.. Scraps only needs some occasional cleaning and darning..."

The Patchwork Girl did a somersault and exclaimed, "Sew true! Sew true! And Darn me too! Darn me to heck, and I'm good as new!"

"And as for me," Tik Tok said, "I am guar-an-teed for a thou-sand years, but I am so well built that I think I may ver-y well last for-ev-er."

"I only require a new head every so often," Jack Pumpkinhead said.

"I am made of wood," the sawhorse said. "I imagine I'll last a very long time."

Belldandy frowned a moment. "Well, I'm not sure if any of you qualify as true immortals," she said, "but it's clear that none of you are mortal in the ordinairy sense. I think it will be okay to bring you along with me."

"If I may be so bold," said the Scarecrow, "as to make a suggestion, my excellent brains think that we should first travel to Glinda's Palace in the South. There we can consult with her Book of Records. That is the best source for research that anyone has ever heard of, for it instantly records anything important that happens anywhere in the world."

Belldandy considered this a moment.

"That sounds like a very good idea," she said. "How far South is Glinda's palace?"

"Don't bother."

The group turned to see a crystal-clear Glass Cat stalk into the room. Her eyes were two brilliant emeralds, while her heart was a fiery red ruby. Within her head were many small pink stones that twirled and spun about.

"Bungle!" the Scarecrow exclaimed.

"Oh!" Belldandy cried. "So you're the Glass Cat! The Gump said that you were somewhere about!"

"Of course!" the cat said. "I cannot be put to sleep or de-stuffed or starched or otherwise frozen, and I do not rust or run down like the clockwork man. My body is made of glass, which is a much finer substance than tin or copper or straw. Not only am I much stronger and more resiliant, I am also a great deal prettier."

"I sup-pose the witch would have shat-tered you if she had had the chance," Tik Tok said.

"I suspected as much, and that is why I hid from her. She was no match for my beautiful brains. You can see them working, you know, and that proves that they're unmatched."

"Why, so you can!" Belldandy said. "You're a very clever and pretty cat indeed."

The Glass Cat, being an excedingly vain creature, was quite pleased by these comments.

"Anyway, you won't find Glinda's book in her palace," Bungle said. "The wicked witch has already stolen it."

"She has?" the Scarecrow exclaimed in surprise.

"Of course. She used the magic belt to wish it to her," the Glass Cat said.

"Oh no! She has the magic belt too?"

The Glass Cat rolled it's pretty emerald green eyes. "Of _course_ she has the magic belt! _And_ Osma's magic picture as well. Why wouldn't she? Obviously your famous brains are no match for my beautiful pink ones! Name the first things _any_ villain who wants to conquer Oz goes for. The Nome King's magic belt, Ozma's magic picture, and Glinda's Book of Records. After all, if you were going to conquer Oz, wouldn't you do the same thing?"

"I don't know," the Scarecrow said. "I've never thought about it before. Why would I want to conquer Oz?"

"I wouldn't expect _you_ to want to," the Glass Cat said. "But the first step in planning a defense is knowing how your enemy thinks."

"I don't _want_ to know that! If you think I'm going to get into the head of a wicked witch, you've got another thing coming!"

"You mean think," Bungle said. "As in 'You've got another _think_ coming.'"

"I think I know what I mean!" the Scarecrow cried hotly.

"In any case," the cat said, "it hardly matters. If the book had anything to say on the subject, then Glinda would have seen it and been forewarned. Since we know that she was caught unawares, we can be certain that the Book of Records does not say anything important about the witch in question."

The Scarecrow looked surprised. "That, Bungle, is an astounding bit of deduction!" he exclaimed. "I'm surprised I hadn't thought of it yet. But I do believe you're absolutely right. Glinda always reads her book very carefully, just for situations such as this. I wonder how the witch managed to plot and craft such a spell without Glinda finding out?"

"That's a good question," the cat said. "But perhaps we can discuss it after we're gone from here?"

"It will take me a few minutes to prepare the right spell," Belldandy said. "Is there a hury?"

"Yes," the cat said. "If the wicked witch has the magic picture, then she is watching us even now. And if she has the magic belt..."

There was a flash of light, and suddenly they were no longer standing in the laundry room, but in a smaller room, with three windowless walls and a fourth wall made of green steel bars, with a padlocked door.

"...she can transport us wherever she wants," Bungle finished. "The Emerald City's royal dungeon, for example?"

"Oh my!" Belldandy exclaimed.

* * *

You would probably not expect a place like the Emerald City to have a dungeon, and to be certain it was rarely used, but even a fairy land like Oz has occasional problems, and rules that are sometimes broken. Thus, in one corner of the palace, in the basement, there were several small jail cells. But as you might expect, this was not like any normal jail.

The first difference was that the walls were covered with inlaid emeralds, juast as the rest of the city was. Also, the cells were large and quite spacious, so that Belldandy and all of the others could fit easily into one of them. The ceiling was very high and had many glass skylights, so that the little jail was very brightly lit. The floors were thickly carpeted, comfortable chairs and beds were within the cell, lovely pictures hung on the walls, and beautiful green potted plants lined the hallway on the other side of the bars. In fact, if it were not for the bars, you might think you were in a luxurious apartment or hotel room.

The first one to move was the Glass Cat. She padded up to the bars that kept them inside the cell, and slipped between two of them. In a jiffy she was on the far side of the bars, looking in at the others.

"Well," the Glass Cat said. "This is quite a pickle for the rest of you, isn't it? How lucky for me that I can squeeze between these bars so easily."

"Mr. Scarecrow," Belldandy said, "what else can this witch do with this magic belt?"

"Well," the Scarecrow replied, "one of its chief use is to move things about -- but in the hands of a person with knowledge and magical talents it can do many things. It has often been used for transformations, for example..."

"Miss Glass Cat," Belldandy said quickly, "please step back inside."

"I don't see why I should," the cat said. "You have no authority over me. I don't even know who you are. Nor do I have any desire to stay inside a jail cell. I was thinking that I might go and find the key to the cell..."

There was another flash of bright light, and a whooshing sound. When the others looked about, they saw that Jack Pumpkinhead was frozen. His entire body, including his head, was now a billiant, translucent green.

"Why, he's been turned into an emerald statue!" the Scarecrow exclaimed.

"And so we all will be, in just a few minutes," Scraps said.

"Poor Jack Pumpkinhead, all stiff and green!

"The prettiest statue that you've ever seen!

"One thing's for certain, as he's frozen there,

"His wit and his wisdom's no worse for the wear!"

"I'd rather not be transformed into emerald," the Tin Woodsman said. "A cold emerald heart would hold no warmth or kindess at all."

"But it might be nearly as beautiful as my ruby heart," the Glass Cat said.

There was a second flash, and the Sawhorse was transformed into a cold, stiff emerald carving of a sawhorse.

"She's going to transform us all!" the Scarecrow exclaimed, beginning to panic.

"Please," Belldandy said, "Miss Bungle, step back into the cell. If you'd all gather around me, I think I can block the witch's spells..."

"Oh, is that the reason?" asked the Glass Cat, who was still on the far side of the bars. "If you'd only have said. I'm not inclined to follow orders blindly, but if I understand their purpose..."

Nick Chopper reached through the bars, snatched up the cat, and pulled her through. A second later, with everyone huddled around her, Belldandy raised her hands and said a small, prayer-like chant. A small sphere of blue light seemed to form around the group. Almost at the same time, there was another flash, similar to the one that had transformed Jack, but this time it bounced off of the blue sphere and ricocheted onto one of the nearby plants, which was instantly transformed a bright emerald plant statue.

"Bungle," Nick Chopper said, as he set the cat down on the carpet. "You are an excedingly clever cat, but when a goddess asks you to move, you had best move."

"I had no idea she was a goddess," the cat said. "You see? As I said, a little explanation goes a long way..."

"You should apologize to the Tin Woodsman," Belldandy said. "If not for him, you might be an emerald cat now, instead of a glass one."

The cat cocked her head sideways. "That might not be so bad, so long as I could still move. Emerald is almost as pretty as glass. After all, my eyes are made of emeralds, you know!"

"Yes, but people would no longer be able to see your heart or your brains," the Scarecrow said.

"Well, I certainly wouldn't like that part at all," the cat replied swiftly. "No, it's much better to remain a very beautiful crystal-clear Glass Cat." She nodded her head in the Tin Woodsman's direction. "My thanks," she said, "although next time I would ask you to be more careful. My body is resilient, but it _can_ be broken."

"How long will this barrier last?" the Scarecrow said, looking fearfully towards the ceiling.

"Long enough," Belldandy replied. She produced a bit of chalk and began to sketch a magic circle on the floor. "Travel to and from Heaven is quite easy for me, as long as a mirror is nearby. But to transport all of you, I need a more complex spell."

Again a bolt of green light bounced off the magical sphere that surrounded them. A large tapestry hanging on a nearby wall suddenly became emerald, and the extra weight caused the whole thing to collapse and shatter, scattering green emerald shards across the carpet.

A crack appeared in the blue sphere where the bolt had struck. The Scarecrow glanced nervously at Belldandy, who was just completing her chalk circle. She stepped back, raised her arms, and in a beautiful, lilting voice she began to chant something in a language that none of the Ozians had ever heard. Possibly someone familiar with Norwegian or one of the other Norse tongues might have recognized some of the words.

Crash! Another bolt bounced off the sphere. The crack in the grew wider. Crash! The nearby couch was transformed into emerald. The crack reached all the way to the floor now, with myriad web-like smaller cracks spreading out across the sphere. The air was humming, and Belldandy's voice could only just be heard above the noise. CRASH! Another bolt slammed against the protective sphere. A moment later, with a loud ping, the sphere shattered. Shards of the spell clattered down to the carpet and then vanished.

"Miss Belldandy?" the Scarecrow said in a quavering voice.

"ZAP!" Another bolt of green magic arced down. At the same moment, the goddess spoke the last words of her spell in a voice that rang out like the sweet but clear sounds of a silver bell. Suddenly the entire world turned a brilliant sky blue, and the small group felt as if they were flying or falling through space.

The blue faded. They were no longer in the Emerald City palace jail cell. They were on a marble platform, overlooking a lush expanse of grass and trees. A bright blue sky overhead was filled with warm light, but no sun could be seen. A nearby fountain provided a steady background clatter of falling water, while birds swooped through the air chirping merrily.

Feeling strangely top-heavy, the Scarecrow removed his hat, and gave a startled cry. The top third of it was now made of emerald.

"That's cutting it close," Nick Chopper said. The Scarecrow nodded numbly in agreement.

"Are we safe here, Miss Bell-dan-dy?" Tik Tok asked.

"Of course," Belldandy said. She smiled. "Welcome to Yggdrasil. Otherwise known as Heaven."


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER TWO**

The collection of strange Ozians -- the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman, the Patchwork Girl, the Clockwork Man and the Glass Cat -- followed Belldandy down a white marble path and across a bridge that soared over empty space. Everywhere they looked were platforms and small floating islands. Some where quite large, and held beautiful gardens, small forests, and wonderful buildings. Nowhere did they see anything that you might call solid ground.

The Tin Woodsman paused at the top of the bridge and leaned out over the railing. Platforms, bridges, small islands of land, and spiraling staircases extended as far as he could see. One island had a magnificent river that flowed over the edge and poured down and down, becoming nothing but a silvery mist in the distance.

"That's a long ways down," the Tin Woodsman said.

"How far down is it?" the Scarecrow asked. "To the bottom, I mean?"

"Well," Belldandy said, "it all depends. In one sense, Heaven is infinite, and you might fall forever and ever and never reach the bottom. In another sense, the roots of Yggdrasil extend deep into the Earth, so you might eventually land back there. But of course, Yggdrasil reaches into many more planets and planes of existance, so perhaps you would end up somewhere else. But the truth of course is that you can't fall out of Heaven, nor can you be injured or killed here. You would fall until you landed on another platform, most likely in another garden or one of the large grassy fields or forests. I would let you find out for yourself, but we don't have the time."

The Scarecrow shivered. "I will believe that it's harmless if you say so, and in any case my straw body is nearly immune to damage from falling, but if it's all the same to you I would not jump off no matter how much time we had."

"You've fallen great distances before," the Tin Woodsman said. "Why once, didn't you slide down your pole far into the depths of the Earth?"

"Yes," the Scarecrow said, "and it was a most disagreeable trip. Although that was when I discovered my family tree, and that I was once the Emperor of the Silver Islands, so it wasn't all bad."

Scraps laughed and began to dance around, singing:

"Down and down, and further down,

"Whenever shall you meet the ground?

"Is it Heaven? Is it Earth?

"How much is the answer worth?"

Belldandy laughed and clapped her hands together. "Oh, Scraps, how clever you are!"

"Clever is not the word I would use," the Glass Cat muttered. At the same moment Scraps spun into the Scarecrow, knocking him right over the railing.

"Look out!" Belldandy cried out. But it was already too late. Arms and legs flailing wildly, the Scarecrow fell down and down, until his body caught in the branches of a large tree far below.

"You see what I mean?" the cat said.

Belldandy leaned over the rail. "Hang on Mr. Scarecrow!" she called out.

"I don't have any choice!" the Scarecrow called back.

Belldandy leaped to the top of the railing and then, to the astonishment of the others, stepped off. But unlike any normal flesh-and-blood girl, the goddess did not fall, but floated serenely down until she reached the Scarecrow. She hovered in the air and carefully disentangled him from the branches of the tree, then the two of them flew back up to where the others waited.

"Now," Belldandy said, setting the Scarecrow down gently, "I hope you'll be more careful. As I said, we don't have a lot of time. We're only here to do research on that wicked witch and the spell she's cast on the Emerald City, and then we must be gone. The five of you may not be mortals, but Yggdrasil is still not a proper place for you to be."

"I was being careful," the Scarecrow said. "It was Scraps that sent me flying."

Scraps laughed and did a somersault. She sang out:

"How far down will a Scarecrow fall?

"Where will he go once he hits the wall?

"What will he find? For it seems to me,

"That in the end, he'll be up a tree!"

The group continued across the bridge and down a path that wound between many large trees. Blue and red and lavender flowers dotted the edges of the path.

"This place is more beautiful than even the Emerald City," the Scarecrow said to his friend the Tin Woodsman. "But I must confess, it has given me new appreciation for our beloved capital. Never before did it occur to me to be thankful that the streets of the Emerald City are so firmly attached to the ground."

Presently they came to a place where large balconies encircled a wide, empty space. In the center was a great floating ball of light. Holographic images and patterns appeared and disappeared in rapid succession on its surface. Sometimes there appeared to be writing in an unknown script, but the images changed so fast that there was no time to really study them.

Several goddesses were seated at small work stations that jutted out from the various balconies. Each was working at what appeared to be a sort of loom, but made of gold and silver, and which wove no cloth. The Ozians were somewhat familiar with the concept of computers, for although Oz was a magical land, they were not ignorant of science and progress in the rest of the world, and both Glinda and the Wizard owned and used personal computers. So it was that, as they watched the goddesses at work, the Glass Cat suddenly exclaimed, "Why, those aren't looms at all, but computer terminals of some sort!" And instantly the others realized that this was so.

"Yes," Belldandy said. "This is the heart of Yggdrasil, the command and control center. From here, we can monitor all parts of the Yggdrasil system and all of the realities that it extends into."

"I see," said the glass cat. "It's a giant computer of some sort."

"Indeed it is," said Belldandy.

"But isn't there some sort of high god that's in control of everything?" the glass cat asked.

"The Almighty is of course in charge of all," Belldandy said. "But he leaves the day-to-day details of running Yggdrasil to others."

One of the goddesses sat at a station set above the others. Her loom was larger, and the chair she sat in resembled a high-tech throne of sorts. She was dressed in an elaborate outfit of black leather that revealed more than it hid.

"Belldandy?" the goddess said. "I thought you were out delivering a wish."

"Good day, Peorth," Belldandy replied. "I was, and I still am. We've run into a few complications. Is Urd about? I need to do some research."

"Urd's in the library, in fact," Peorth said. She eyed Belldandy's companions. "Have you brought mortals into Yggdrasil? Security isn't going to appreciate that."

"They aren't mortals, exactly," Belldandy said. "In any case, I couldn't leave them where we were. And as soon as I've finished my research, we'll be leaving, so I don't think it will be a problem."

Peorth raised an eyebrow. "If you say so. Just be quick about it."

Belldandy nodded, then led the others down another path and over a bridge. They approached a large building -- one of the largest they'd seen. It was as wide as the Emerald City Palace itself, and towered many stories into the clear sky. Marble steps wide enough for an army of elephants led up and up. After more than a hundred steps they passed through a massive circular gate and into the interior of the building, where shelves filled with books soared many stories up until you couldn't make out where they ended. The entryway led to a bridge-like platform, which spanned a large open space and led to the center of the library.

When the Scarecrow carefully glanced over the side, he saw that the bookshelves also extended downwards many stories, and that he could barely make out the library floor below.

Here and there among the bookshelves were more computer stations. The Scarecrow tried to imagine how much information might be stored in such a place -- a place that, if he understood correctly, oversaw all of existence, or at the very least a large part of it. Even a library that seemed nearly infinite in size would have to keep most of the information in computer files only.

"What a marvelous place this is," he said. "I thought the Emerald City library was huge, but it's nothing compared to this. In my experience, knowledge is the most important thing one can possess. It's the key to all of existence. Now that I think of it, it only makes sense that such a wonderful library exists here, of all places."

"It's the largest library I know of," Belldandy said.

Bungle craned her kneck looking up at the many rows of books. "If you told me that every book ever made on Earth could be found here, I'd believe it."

"Every book ever made on multiple planes of existence, I think," the Scarecrow said.

"As far as I know, that's true," Belldandy said. "Although I'm not sure how you could ever prove it."

"Then does this li-bra-ry con-tain a co-py of Glin-da's Book of Re-cords?" Tik-Tok asked.

Belldandy looked thoughtful. "I hadn't considered that," she said, "but of course, even magical books are not excepted. We have many powerful magical books here, so I'd assume we hav a copy of Glinda's book too. Mind you, many places in the library require high-level clearance to access, so it wouldn't just be lying about."

"What are those things?" Bungle asked.

"What things?" Belldandy asked.

"Those flying things," the glass cat added. "They're everywhere!"

Indeed, small, colorful creatures were flying to and fro among the towering rows of books. They seemed to be transporting books back and forth, pulling them off the shelves or refiling them.

"Those are the library dragons," Belldandy said. "They work here. They sleep here as well. They're a special breed of miiature dragon that hungers for knowledge above everything."

They crossed the wide platform and followed it into the center of the library. Here they came to the help desk -- a large circular desk with several goddesses seated behind it. One of them had very dark skin and whilte hair, and wore an off-the-shoulder gown of blue trimmed with gold that was cut to reveal a lot of cleavage. She glanced up as they approached, and her eyes lit up.

"Belldandy! You're back already? How did it go?" The goddess examined the rest of the group, and her eyes widened. "Who are all these -- people?"

"Good day, Urd. It hasn't gone well so far," Belldandy said. "Little Dorothy has been put to sleep with a spell, and so I can't wake her or grant her a wish. The old woman who cast the spell was not very helpful at all, and so I need to do some research to learn how to break the spell."

She paused, and turned to the rest of the group. "This is my older sister Urd," she said. "Urd, these are the people I rescued from the enchanted palace. This is Scraps, the Patchwork Girl, and this fellow here is Tik-Tok. This is Nick Chopper, known as the Tin Woodsman. This is the Scarecrow. And this beautiful creature is Bungle, the Glass Cat."

Bungle had leaped up onto the counter. "I am made of beautiful glass," she said. "So long as I'm careful to avoid being shattered, you may well gaze on my beauty forever. Note especially my beautiful pink brains. You can see them work!"

But Urd wasn't paying attention to Bungle. She was staring at the Tin Woodsman and the Scarecrow.

"Do you mean _the_ Tin Woodsman, and _the_ Scarecrow?"

"I'm certainly the only Tin Woodsman I know of," Nick Chopper said. "Nor have I ever met another living Scarecrow."

Urd glanced back at Belldandy. "But then... you were sent to grant a wish to _Dorothy Gale_?"

"Why, yes," Belldandy said. "Do you know her?"

"Dorothy Gale of _Kansas_?"

"I'm fairly certain Dorothy is a Princess of Oz," Belldandy said.

"But she's from Kansas originally," the Scarecrow added.

Urd closed her eyes as a pained look crossed her face. "No. That can't be. This _must_ be a dream!" She pinched herself, and then swore under her breath.

"Is something wrong?" Belldandy asked.

"Sis, haven't you ever seen 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'?"

Belldandy's expression was blank. "No. What is it? Should I have?"

"It's only one of the most famous movies ever made," Urd replied. "It's been on television dozens of times!" In her excitement, she not only jumped out of her chair but actually floated several feet above the floor, and continued to hover there.

"Ah!" the Scarecrow said. "The movie that was based on Mr. Baum's book! I've heard of it, but I don't believe I've ever seen it!"

Urd stared at him, then grimaced. "Okay, okay, I can deal with this. I'm well aware that there are millions of realities and planes of existence. I just never thought... so then, where's the Cowardly Lion?"

"Asleep in the Emerald City," the Glass Cat said. "Weren't you listening? EVERYONE in the Emerald City is under a spell of sleep. The only ones who escaped the spell are those of us who can't sleep at all."

Urd glanced down at Bungle as if seeing her for the first time.

"Are those your brains?" Urd asked.

"Of course! Aren't they the most beautiful brains you've ever seen? You can see them work!"

Urd stared a moment longer, then flopped back into her chair. "Okay," she said. "So Dorothy's asleep, and everyone else in Oz?"

"Just in the Emerald City, that I'm aware of," Belldandy said.

"And a wicked witch did it? And we need to know who she is and how she crafted her spell. Got it." She stood up and floated over the counter. "First things first. This could take some time, so everyone follow me."

She led the Ozians down a long aisle past many shelves of books and onto a platform that slowly descended several levels. From there they wound between more rows of books until they came to an open area with a large grey couch. "Sit down and get comfortable," she said. The Scarecrow and the Patchword Girl flopped down, while the Tin Woodsman and Tic-Toc seated themselves more gingerly, careful to do no damage with their metal bodies.

Urd spoke a few words in an unknown language, and something that resembled a sphere on a long pole rose from the floor. She placed a hand on the sphere, which flashed with colors and symbols. Next, a large translucent screen rose up from the floor.

"Since Belldandy and I are going to be a while," Urd said, "I thought that the rest of you could pass the time by watching a movie."

"As long as it's not too violent," the Scarecrow said. "I've seen a few, and they always seem to be..." his voice trailed off as the movie started. "Oh! The Wizard of Oz! I've always wanted to see this!"

Urd smirked. "Everyone should see it at least once in their lives," she said. "Especially you guys."

She turned to Belldandy. "So. Where should we start?"

Belldandy looked thoughtful. "I was thinking," she said, "that we should locate our copy of Glinda's Book of Records..."

XXX

Urd and Belldandy headed to a private research room deep in the heart of the library, where serious study was conducted and where important books such as the one they sought could be viewed. Books such as Glinda's Book of Records were normally held in a secure area of the library, and only brought out by special request.

An hour passed. Belldandy poured over the massive book, identical to Glinda's own in every way, while Urd researched the Yggdrasil data files at a nearby terminal.

Finally Belldandy closed the book and sighed.

"There's nothing here, Urd," she said. "Bungle was right. If there _had_ been something, Glinda would have seen it."

"But isn't that a little strange?" Urd asked. "I thought that book recorded everything of importance in the world."

"Indeed it does. It's quite tedious to read through when you're looking for just one specific thing. Even though it only records items of relevance, there's still a great deal of information to sort through for even a single day."

"I wonder why nothing's there?" Urd said, frowning in thought. "You would think a witch plotting against Oz and Glinda herself would be of relevance."

"I would certainly think so," Belldandy said. "I'm afraid I have no explanation for it. Perhaps Glinda's book just failed this time."

"No," Urd said. "No, that's not it. Magical items that powerful don't just fail by accident. Think, Bell. If you were an evil witch plotting against Glinda, what would you do?"

"I'm sure I'd never do anything of the sort," Belldandy said.

"Of course not. I'm speaking hypothetically here. Put yourself in the mind of this evil witch. How do you plot against someone who instantly knows what you're plotting? Indeed, who knows every plot against her anywhere in the world?"

"I haven't the faintest idea."

"That's because you don't have a devious bone in your body," Urd replied. She sat up and began working at the computer terminal in front of her. "Think about it. If Glinda's Book of Records detailss events that happen anywhere in the world, then you just have to go somewhere else. Right?" She glanced up. Bell was watching her with a puzzled expression. Urd threw up her hands. "_Think_, Sis! There are lots of places that aren't 'in the world'! Yggdrassil, for instance. Do you think Glinda's book records events that happen here? My guess is that it doesn't. It can't. Even an item as powerful as that has its limitations."

"I guess it wouldn't," Belldandy said. "I hadn't thought of that." She continued to stare at her sister with a blank expression.

Urd threw up her hands. "_So_," she said, "if you wanted to plot against Glinda without her knowing about it, you do it from somewhere besides the physical world."

"Oh!" Belldandy exclaimed. "Why, that must be exactly what the wicked witch did!"

"Yes indeed," Urd said, turning back to her computer terminal. "All we need to do is figure out where she did it from, and look for information on what she did while she was there..."

There was a flicker, and a small image appeared on the table before them. It was a minature version of Peorth, complete with the elaborate throne she sat on.

"Peorth?" Belldandy asked. "Is something the matter?"

"Belldandy, can you come to me now?"

"I'm a little busy, Peorth. Urd and I..."

"_Now_, Bell. It's very important. Vital, in fact. This has to do with the security of Yggdrasil itself."

"Oh! On my way," Belldandy said. She stood and turned to a mirror on the wall behind her.

"They might be upset that you've brought mortals into Heaven," Urd said.

"But they're _not_ mortals," Belldandy said. "Not exactly anyway. Oh, I hope I haven't caused any trouble. I'll be back as soon as I can, Urd." She touched the mirror and swiftly vanished into it.

"Don't worry," Urd said as she vanished, "I've got a lot of research to do here yet..."

XXX

In a remote alcove of the Yggdrasil library, the credits for the movie "The Wizard of Oz" rolled. Seated on a nearby couch, several Ozians contemplated what they'd just seen.

"That human did not make a very convincing man of straw," the Scarecrow said.

"Nor did the other fellow make a convincing man of tin," said the Tin Woodsman. "I'm surprised anyone fell for such a poor make-up job. And as for the Cowardly Lion..."

"Not realistic at all," the Scarecrow said. "Even Dorothy was obviously a full-grown woman, and not a little girl. You know, I'm not a movie expert, but I've seen much better special effects before."

'Of course," Bungle said. "This movie is fifty years old, or didn't you notice?"

"It is?" the Scarecrow said. "I keep forgetting, the outside world changes with time a great deal more than Oz does. Technological advancement, I think they call it. Professor Wogglebug and the Wizard are very keen on the subject, although if you ask me the jury's still out on whether anything's really being advanced."

"Certainly movie special effects have advanced," the Tin Woodsman said. "Even I know that much."

"Yes, I suppose that's true," the Scarecrow said. "Still, why did they decided to end the film by saying it was all a dream? That part disappoints me the most. But otherwise, it was a good film, and relatively accurate on the events, at least."

"What did you think, Bungle?" the Tin Woodsman asked.

The glass cat yawned. "I'm not sure that I'd call that entertainment," she said. "They should do the story of my adventures with Ojo and Scraps. Now _that_ would make a great movie!"

"Because it would contain you?"

"Of course! But I'd have to play myself, as no other creature could possibly imitate my beautiful crystal-clear body, with my bright emerald eyes, my ruby heart, and my pink brains."

"It would contain me as well!" said Scraps the Patchwork Girl. "And I agree with the Glass Cat completely! Our tale would make a much better movie! I'm certain Hollywood has never seen a actress as colorful as myself!"

The cat hopped off the couch. "Well, that was a waste of two hours," it added, and began to walk away.

"Don't wander off, Bungle," the Scarecrow said. "We should wait here for Miss Urd and Miss Belldandy."

"I won't go far," the cat replied. "But there's so much to see and explore here! Aren't you at all curious?"

"Yes, but they left us here for a reason," the Scarecrow replied. "We don't want to get lost or separated. We may have to leave suddenly."

"I said I won't go far," the glass cat replied from further off.

"How about the rest of you?" the Tin Woodsman asked. "Did you enjoy the movie, Tik-Tok?"

When the clockwork man didn't respond, the Tin Woodsman examined him. "Oh, he's run down! Here, help me wind him up again!"

Scraps the Patchwork Girl laughed and jumped to her feet. She began to dance about in her floppy manner, singing,

"A Tic and a Toc has unwound the clock!

"And now the movie's done!

"The clockwork man has missed it all,

"And now..."

And she paused, about to leap back into the air. She remained there, motionless and silent.

The Scarecrow watched the Patchwork girl expectantly. The Tin Man was busy winding up Tic-Toc. "Scraps?" the Scarecrow asked. "Why, she's turned all white!" he exclaimed in surprise. "Just like a marble statue..."

The Scarecrow froze. He, too was now as white as a marble statue.

The Tin Woodsman glanced up. "Scarecrow?" he asked. "Is something the mat..." And he, too, fell as silent as a marble statue, which he now appeared to be.

"How did the mo-vie end?" Tic-Toc asked, and then he, too, froze.

From behind a bookshelf a wrinkled old woman with a long, hooked nose appeared. She wore black and red striped stockings, a mustard yellow dress, and a dirty blue shawl. Her silver-green hair was tied into two thick braids that stuck out from either side of her head.

Around her waist was a thick belt with gold stitching and inlaid gems. She ran one hand over it idly, as if she feared that it might disappear at any moment.

She stepped forward and ran her hand down the cold stone face of the Tin Woodsman. She cackled, and it sounded like dry wood splitting.

"That's four of them," she said. "Now, for that meddling goddess..."

Hopping about on one foot and waving her arms about in the air, she cried out:

"Ooglethorp and blundlepaste,

"Take me where I wish, post haste!"

And she vanished into thin air.

A minute passed. The glass cat padded back into the viewing area. She paused to examine her companions, now four marble statues.

"I must say, it's an improvement," the cat said. "Still, marble isn't half as beautiful as glass. You'd think a beautiful glass cat such as myself would be unforgettable, but no. They always forget about the cat. Always."

She padded off to the main library desk.

XXX

When Belldandy appeared before Peorth, she was met by three uniformed goddesses. The double-breasted green military jackets and white leggings were enough to identify them, but the complicated golden symbol on the left breast cinched it. Everyone in Yggdrasil knew that it stood for the Yggdrasil Police Security Force.

"Belldandy?" one of the three, a girl with red hair, asked.

"Yes?"

"I am Officer Arielle of Heavenland Security. Could you come along with us?"

"Oh? What seems to be the problem?"

"Just come with us."

Belldandy frowned. "But what have I done? I have a right to know. If this is about the people from Oz that I brought here..."

"I think you should be aware," a second guard said, "that there's an invasion of Heaven in progress."

"What?"

"Because of your actions, an intruder has forced her way into heaven," Arielle said. "This is a serious problem. I'm afraid I have to place you under temporary arrest."

"What? An intruder?" Bell asked. Arielle stepped forward and took Belldandy's hands. Moments later, her wrists were bound by cuffs of glowing yellow-white energy.

"Forgive me, but I have to do this by the book," Arielle said. "It's just a precaution. I have my orders."

"It must be the wicked witch!" Belldandy exclaimed. "But -- to bypass the security of Yggddrasil? I had no idea her belt was so powerful!"

"Wicked witch?" Peorth repeated. "Wait a second... did you mention Oz a moment ago?"

"Yes," Belldandy said. "The people I've brought with me are from Oz -- as is the wicked witch."

"This belt," Peorth said. "Are we talking about the Magical Belt of the Nome King Ruggedo, alias Roquat the Red?"

Belldandy blinked, looking confused. "I... I guess that would be the one," she said. "I really have no idea. It belongs to Princess Ozma of Oz, I believe."

"That would be the one," Peorth said. The three security goddesses gasped in shock.

"But that's one of the most powerful magical items anywhere!" Arielle exclaimed.

"You bet it is," Peorth replied. "With something like that, it must have been child's play to enter Heaven, despite our security."

"She must be after the Scarecrow and his friends!" Belldandy said. She made a motion as if to fly or teleport away to the library, but Arielle held out her hand.

Wait! You must remain here, Belldandy. You're under arrest."

"But the people I've brought here may be in grave danger!"

"You brought mortals into Heaven?" Arielle said, her frown deepening. "That's a very serious offense, Belldandy. Your license could be suspended or even revoked."

"They aren't mortals," Belldandy replied. "Not exactly. None of them are flesh and blood."

Arielle continued to frown. "That may be," she said, "but arguing semantics isn't your style, Bell. Anyway you well know that Father nearly always holds to the spirit rather than the letter of the law."

"It doesn't matter," Belldandy said. "I had to save them, so I had little choice. I thought bringing them here would protect them from that contrary witch. It appears I was wrong." She turned to her friend. "Peorth?"

"I'm on it," Peorth said. "You just hang tight." She turned to one of the other central command goddesses. "Arda, you're in charge."

"Miss Peorth! May I remind you that we have an invasion in progress? You should not leave your post at a time like this."

"That's exactly what this is about," Peorth snapped. "If Belldandy's right, then our intruder is in the library." She turned to Arielle. "Can you have some security meet me there?"

"I don't... I mean... I should check with my superiors..."

"Then do so, but get somebody over there. Now! Before we miss her!"

XXX

Back in the research room, Urd was busy running searches on some of the more specialized Yggdrasil databases. Her hands flew across the loom-like interface. Symbols etched in bright light flashed before her eyes, moving past seemingly too quickly to follow.

Finally she sat back and sighed. "This is taking too long," she said. Her only audience was one of the library dragons, a small fellow about a foot and a half long with shiny violet scales and leathery wings of a dark purple. It was perched in a vine that climbed the wall on the far side of the table. It watched her intently.

"Still," she said, "I know I'm on the right track with this, and I even think I'm getting somewhere." She patted the large book on the table in front of her. "Tell me. You're familiar with this book, yes? The Book of Records, owned by Glinda the good witch of Oz?"

The violet dragon inclined its head. "Yessss, of coursssse."

"Do you know if Lord Morpheus owns a similar book, one that covers his own realm?"

"Yesssss," the dragon replied. "The Book of Dreamssss."

"Aha!" Urd exclaimed. "I thought he might! I'd like to see our copy of that book."

The dragon again inclined its head and, stretching out its wings, lept into the air and flew off. A few minutes later it reappeared, carrying a book at least as massive as Glinda's Book of Records. Although the book was much larger than the dragon itself, the little creature carried it easily. It set the book in front of Urd, who reached out for it eagerly.

A fraction of a second later, Urd jumped completely out of her seat and over the table. The chair she'd been sitting in was now made of white marble. "Ha!" Urd exclaimed. "No second-rate witch can catch me that easily! I've forgotten more about witchcraft than you'll ever learn, old woman!"

The wicked witch, hooked nose, leathery skin, twin silver-green braids and all, stepped out of the shadows. She peered at the dark-skinned goddess intently.

"You're different from the other goody-two-shoe goddesses of this realm," she said, her voice rasping. "I sense demon blood in you, child. But no matter. You may be a match for me, but you are no match for this belt."

Urd growled and raised her hands. She began to chant a spell. The vines behind her came to life, wrapping about her arms and legs. They pulled her back until she was bound fast against the wall. Unable to complete her spell, Urd struggled in vain to free herself. Meanwhile the witch cackled and stepped forward to peer at the two books on the table.

"What have we here?" she asked. "A copy of Glinda's book, and what else? Oh, The Dreamlord won't be happy that you left this lying around, oh no!"

She picked up both books and slipped them into a satched slung over her shoulder.

"Well, Miss I'm-Better-Than-Any-Witch Goddess, what shall we turn _you_ into? You look so pretty wrapped up in that vine. Perhaps I'll make you a part of it forever!"

"Why are you doing this?" Urd asked.

"Why do I need a reason?" the witch snapped. "Mind your own business!"

"Everyone has a reason for their actions," Urd said. "Unless you're insane."

"Oh, I'm quite sane," the witch replied. "It's the rest of the world that's mad. Haven't you noticed? Now, be a good vine and be quiet!"

The witch muttered something under her breath, and Urd faded until all that was left was a thick Urd-shaped section of vine.

"Second-rate witch indeed," the old woman muttered. "More like second-rate goddess. Now, for the other one, and I'll be done here..."

She hopped about on one leg and said,

"Iffle Piffle Whiffle Wow,

"Take me to that goddess now!"

And she was gone.

A few moments later, a violet dragon flew down and deposited a clear glass cat upon the table, then settled beside it. The cat stared up at the vines and frowned.

"I was afraid of this," Bungle said. "A city full of gods and goddesses, and naturally I'm expected to save everyone."

She glanced at the dragon. "I think we're going to need help. I may be beautiful and I may have exceptional brains, but magic like this is a little out of my league."

XXX

Belldandy was led into a large hall with marble pillars that rose to a ceiling high overhead. There were no walls here, and a gentle breeze blew through the center of the building. Birds swooped in and then flew back out into the sunlight.

In the center of the hallway, standing before a marble podium, was an imposing god with long black braided hair. He was very tall and superbly muscled, with skin darker than Urd's. His robes were decorated with African tribal patterns and left much of his chest and arms exposed. In one hand he clutched a long black sceptre.

Belldandy was led before him by Arielle. Her wrists were still bound by glowing bonds. She bowed low. "Lord Kalunga, adjudicator First Class" she said solemnly.

"Belldandy, Goddess First Class," the god replied. "Never did I think that you should be brought before me."

"Nor did I," Belldandy replied. "But I do believe I can explain my actions."

"I certainly hope so," the adjudicator replied. He turned to Arielle. "What is the charge?"

"If it please the court," Arielle said, "Yggdrasil has been invaded by someone with malevolent intent. We have yet to determine exactly who or what this is, but preliminairy indications are that the invasion was a direct result of Belldandy's actions."

"Is this true?" The god turned to Belldandy.

"It must be the wicked witch," Belldandy said. She quickly explained her visit to the Emerald City in Oz and her current quest to unravel the spell of the wicked witch. "I'm certain she's after the friends I rescued from Oz," Belldandy said. "They're in the library at the moment. I wanted to go there and to warn my sister Urd, but since Arielle had placed me under arrest, Peorth went in my stead."

"Reportedly, this witch has access to the Magic Belt of the Nome King Ruggedo," Arielle added. "I've sent a team of three security goddesses to the library to investigate, but my orders were to take Belldandy into custody and bring her here..."

"You know better than that, Arielle," Lord Kalunga said. "Father holds to the spirit of the law rather than the letter of it. Which is more important, detaining Belldandy, or expelling the invader from Yggdrasil?"

"My lord, I... I only thought..." Arielle fell silent. She stared down at her feet, embarassed to have her recent admonision to Belldandy turned back on her. "Expelling the invader is of primary importance," she said.

"Just so," the adjudicator said. "And so we shall go to the library without delay."

"No need," a voice like the dry desert crackled. Everyone turned to see the wicked witch hovering in the air nearby. She bowed mockingly. "Greetings, Lord adjudicator," she rasped. "As you see, I have come to you."

XXX

The Glass Cat and her purple library dragon friend were waiting at the library's front desk when Peorth arrived, followed by three goddesses in green security uniforms.

"Ah," Bungle said. "I was wondering when someone would finally get here."

The four flew straight to a library goddess who sat behind the front desk with computer in front of her. Above her head hung a large sign which read "Information".

"Give me the location of Urd, goddess second class, and of the five guests from the land of Oz which Belldandy brought with her to Yggdrasil," Peorth demanded. "And make it quick, the security of Heaven may be at stake!"

The hands of the desk goddess flew across the computer skein.

"I can not locate Urd, goddess second class, at this time," the Information Goddess replied. "The creature known as Bungle the Glass Cat is located at the front desk of the library, five meters to my left. I can not locate the other persons you specified at this time. Perhaps you should restate your request using their given names, to help aid my search."

Bungle padded quietly toward the Information desk.

"I don't remember their names," Peorth said. "Didn't you see them arrive? Why can't you locate them? What about the witch?"

"I'm sorry Miss Peorth. I don't know _why_ I can not locate Urd, goddess second class, or the four other guests from the land of Oz at this time. I can give you their last known locations if you wish. As for your second request, I can not locate a person known as 'the witch' at this time. Perhaps you should restate your request using this person's given name, to help aid my search."

"Don't bother," Bungle said. "She's long gone. She's after Belldandy now. She's already turned my companions into marble statues, and Urd into a part of that vine there. I can lead you to them if you like."

Peorth glanced down at the cat, as if seeing her for the first time.

"Who are you?" she asked.

Bungle sighed.

"Are those your brains?" Peorth added.

The cat noticeably brightened. "Yes, and they're beautiful and they work very well. But we don't have time for that, do we?"

XXX

The wicked witch floated several feet above the marble floor of the Justice Hall. The green pigtails which stuck straight out from her head flapped up and down as if they were wings which held her aloft. Before her stood Belldandy, Arielle, Kalunga the adjudicator, and the other security goddesses.

The witch cackled maniacally. One hand caressing her wide jeweled belt, and she said, "Well, isn't this a pretty collection of self-righteous do-gooders? I've only come for the nosy wish-giving girl, but since the rest of you are gathered here I might as well do you all too. Don't move, this will only take a second..."

"Cease and desist at once!" Kalunga commanded. His voice, low and booming, held such an air of command and authority that any normal person would have obeyed instantly. The witch only laughed again.

"Sorry, handsome," she said. "Can't do that. No time!"

"Please!" Belldandy called out. "Why are you doing this? Please let us know!"

No thanks!" the witch said. "I gave your demon friend all the explanation I intend to give. I've no time to tell you _what_ or _why_ like some B-grade villian. Now, hold still!"

One hand on her belt, the wicked witch said,

"Dust to dust and ash to ash,

"Turn this haughty god to glass!"

"Look out!" Arielle cried out. Kalunga jumped to one side. Behind him, his podium was transformed from marble to glass.

"You dare, in the heart of Heaven and the seat of all Justice?" the god exclaimed.

"I dare anything, Sonny!" the witch said with a laugh. She cried out,

"To the marrow, to the bone,

"Turn this goddess here to stone!"

A flash of magic shot out to Belldandy, but Arielle jumped in front of her. The beam hit the security goddess in the chest, and she was instantly transformed to stone.

Kalunga flung out his staff and a flash of pure white shot out at the witch. The bolt of magic bounced harmlessly off of an invisible barrier two feet from her. She laughed and flew about the room.

"Fine! I'll turn you all to stone if I have to!" she screamed.

"From my pigtails to my socks,

"Turn this goddess here to rock!"

Kalunga grabbed Belldandy roughly by the arm and yanked her out of the way. The bolt of magical energy misses her nose by centimeters, burying itself in the floor.

Belldandy cried out. A half-dozen hairs had been brushed by the energy bolt and transformed to stone. They fell to the floor and shattered into a thousand fragments.

"Stop being difficult!" the witch snapped. "You can't stop me, I'm far too powerful! Now stand still and let me turn you to stone!"

There was a shimmering in the air, and suddenly the room was filled with people. Among them were many members of the Yggdrasil Police Security Force, but also there was Peorth, Urd, and all of the Ozians. At the sight of these people, the witch's eyes bugged out.

"What are you doing here?" she yelled. "I transformed you people! What are you doing walking around? You should be statues! You should be stone and glass and marble and vine!"

"Didn't you know?" Peorth said. "Transformations don't work very well in this place. They are, by their very nature, decietful and misleading, and therefore not allowed. It is only because your belt is so powerful that you were able to enact transformations at all, but they're really quite easily reversed."

Peorth turned to Arielle's statue and whispered a spell, and the security goddess was returned to her normal body.

"Many thanks, Peorth," the security goddess said.

"Oh, you people are no fun at all!" the witch rasped.

"This also isn't the witch's normal appearance," Peorth said. "She's wearing a disguise."

"Impossible," the security goddess Arielle replied. "Illusions and disguises aren't allowed in Heaven."

"Nor are transformations," Peorth said. "You haven't been listening, have you? Oh, but you were turned to stone... suffice it to say, laws were made to be broken. It's not legal for her to even _be_ here, but clearly she _is_ here. Certainly its difficult to hide your true self here, but not impossible if you have powerful enough magic. And that belt is a _very_ powerful magic item.

"In any case, I sense this is a disguise that she's remained in for years, so it's almost like a second skin to her. That makes it easier. Doesn't it, Andreologo?"

The witch's piercing shriek filled the room. "How do you know that name?" she demanded. "I hid it that no one would ever find it!"

"Heaven knows all," Peorth said.

"You and your nasty databases! I won't have it! I won't!"

The witch began to mutter under her breath, but Peorth began to sing in a beautiful language that none who were not of Yggdrasil could hope to understand. Peorth finished her spell first. Green magic mist swirled about her, then reached out and enveloped the witch. Andreologo's muttering was instantly muffled. Moments later, the green mist faded, revealing a very different person where the witch had been.

She was young and very beautiful, with lightly tanned skin and long, braided hair. She was, in fact, not so different from Belldandy herself, save for the hatred which twisted her features.

"Now you've made me angry!" she spat. "Meddling do-good goddesses! Why can't you just leave well enough alone?"

She began to spin about in the air, singing,

"Ooglethorp and blundlepaste,

"Take me back to Oz, post haste!"

And with a flash, the witch vanished.

Peorth tapped one of the bracelets on her arm. "Arda?" she said. "You got a reading on our invader?"

Moments later, the voice of Arda drifted out of the bracelet: "The Witch Andreologo is no longer to be found within Yggdrasil. All indications are that she has left and returned to Oz."

"Good," Peorth replied. "And now that we know who she is and what her abilities are, we can block her from ever returning."

"Well, that's good," Belldandy said. "But I still need to find out how she cast her spell on the Emerald City, and how to counter it."

Urd groaned and placed her hand over her eyes. "Rats, I completely forgot!"she said. "That wicked witch has taken the Book of Records! And the Book of Dreams as well!"

Peorth's eyes narrowed. "She did? How did she get ahold of them?"

"Bell and I were doing research in the library using those two books," Urd said. "When she came after me, she grabbed them both."

Peorth's frown deepened. "You should have said something," she said. "Losing those two books -- that's a serious security issue. Father won't be pleased."

"You think I don't know that?" Urd said. "But what's done is done. Not much we can do about it now."

"Says you. I'll have security goddesses after her in no time. We _need_ to retrieve those books."

"I'd advise against it," Urd said. "That witch was nearly a match for us here. Now she'll be on her guard, and in Oz, her power will be much greater. If you get turned into stone there it might be forever."

"Maybe," Peorth said. "But we have to try."

"But why would she take them?" Belldandy asked. "Doesn't she already have the original Book of Records?"

Urd nodded. "Our copy is identical to Glinda's -- it can't tell her anything she doesn't already know. I'd say that she stole it to keep _us_ from finding something out."

"But we've already looked. It says nothing of how she created the spell and plotted her revenge."

"No, but..." Urd stopped and smacked her forehead. "What an idiot I've been! It says nothing of what happened _before_ she cast her spell, but she's been in Oz since then. Everything she's done since entering Oz would have been in there. We could have known that she was coming here to attack us, if only we'd looked."

"Oh, my!" Belldandy exclaimed.

Lord Kalunga the adjudicator stepped forward and took a good look at Belldandy's companions from Oz. "If I'm not mistaken," he said, "you would be the Tin Woodsman, the Scarecrow, the Patchwork Girl, the Glass Cat, and Tic Toc the Clockwork Man. Greetings, and welcome to Yggdrasil. I am Kalunga."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," he said. "But if I may ask, how do you recognize us?"

"I have read many of Mr. Baum's books on Oz," Kalunga said. "It's not hard to recognize such distinctive persons as you five, based on his descriptions." He turned to Belldandy. "Are these the so-called not-quite-mortals that you have brought into Yggdrasil?"

"Of course," Belldandy said. "As I explained, I couldn't leave them behind. They were in grave danger where they were, and I need their help to break the wicked witch's spell and complete my mission."

"Clearly that is true," the adjudicator said, "but in bringing them into the Heavens you've brought that same danger here. Even now, with the intruder expelled from Yggdrasil, your group is being watched by magical means, which yet represents a homeland security breach. At the moment, you presence here is a threat to Yggdrasil itself."

"We're being watched?" Belldandy asked.

Peorth, who'd been whispering into her bracelet, nodded. "Arda confirms it."

"It's the witch," the Scarecrow said. "She's watching us with the magic mirror."

"Oh! I hadn't even thought of that!" Belldandy exclaimed. "Can that mirror also pierce Yggdrasil's defenses?"

"It's a very powerful magic item," Kalunga said. "We can't have a malevolent magic-user like Andreologo peering into the Heavens. There's no telling what she might learn, or how she might use that knowledge."

"Well I don't wish to cause any harm or threat of harm to Yggdrasil of course," Belldandy said, "and I'm sure she's after me and my companions. But I need to finish my research on this Andreologo and the spell she's cast, or I have no hope of unraveling it."

"I'm sorry, Belldandy, but I can't allow you to remain here. You and your companions must leave Heaven immediately."

"Don't worry," Urd said. "I have everything we need, or at least enough to tell us where to look next. With your permission, Lord Adjudicator, we'll be leaving immediately."

"The sooner, the better," Kalunga replied.

"You're coming as well?" Belldandy asked.

"Of course," Urd replied. "Are you kidding? I wouldn't miss this for all the marshmallows in existence!"

"But where are we going?" the Scarecrow asked.

"Don't you know? We're off to see the Wizard!" Urd exclaimed with glee. She paused for dramatic effect. The others stared at her blankly.

"The Wizard?" the Scarecrow said. "Isn't he still in a magical asleep?"

"Of course he's asleep," Urd said. "Sheesh! It was a joke! Didn't you watch the movie? Humor me a little!"

"Oh, yes," the Scarecrow replied. "I think I understand." He smiled and added, "Very funny."

"Thanks for the sympathy laugh," Urd said. "Although it's also half true, because we're headed to the one place where we can still talk to the Wizard, and to Dorothy and Glinda and all the others as well."

"Where is that?"

"The land of dreams, naturally.," Urd said. "In truth, we're off to see the Dreamlord -- Lord Morpheus."

As Urd began to cast the spell of transference, Tik-Tok asked, "So how did the mo-vie end?"

"Well, you know the story," the Scarecrow said. "Nick and Dorothy and I have told it to you many times. Only, the movie made it seem as if it were all a dream of Dorothy's. As if we didn't exist at all!"

"I wish I could have seen the end-ing," the clockwork man said.

And then the spell was cast, and the five adventurers from Oz and the two Norse goddesses vanished from the Yggdrasil Justice Hall, as if indeed they were nothing but a dream.


	3. Chapter 3

Unlike the first two chapters, this one has not been read/edited by anyone else. In fact I just finished it a few hours ago. I hope it works okay.

**CHAPTER THREE**

When the transfer spell faded, the seven travelers found themselves in a strange new land. They were on a grassy hill overlooking a sapphire sea. A road wound around the cliffs above the shoreline and then turned inland, stretching out towards the distant mountains until it faded from sight.

Something about the entire landscape seemed other-worldly. Certainly the Ozians were accustomed to magical fairyland landscapes, and the two goddesses had visited many places that were not of Earth, but more than any land that any of them had ever seen, this land seemed strange and mystical. The ocean was too tranquil to be a normal ocean, and was a deeper blue than one ever saw in the real world. The shoreline seemed too perfect, and the deep amethyst sky, streaked with long whispy clouds, seemed like something out of one's imagination, too beautiful to be real. The distant mountains were too perfectly dramatic. They rose sharply to the sky, like icy jagged blades stabbing at the heavens.

Even the road seemed to be more than just a road. Like everything else it seemed too perfect, too idealized to be real. It was like an archetype of all roads, and staring at it one couldn't help but want to travel down it, perhaps forever.

"I've never been in a dream," the Scarecrow said. "Yet this is exactly like I always imagined it would be."

"I nev-er i-ma-gined what it might look like," Tik-Tok said. "But it is ve-ry bea-u-ti-ful."

"Yes," the Tin Woodsman said, "but also a bit intimidating."

"Huh," Urd said. "Dreamland looks remarkably like Little Nemo's Slumberland. Why doesn't that surprise me?"

"Little Nemo's Slumberland?" Belldandy asked. "What's that?"

"You mean you've never heard of that either?" Urd frowned. "Bell, you really need to brush up on your pop culture references. Watch some tv. Read some comic books."

"And then I would know who Little Nemo was?"

"Yes! Well, actually... no. Now that I think about it, it's not well-known these days. Funny, I wonder where I came across it? Anyway, it was a comic strip in America in the early part of the 20th century. Little Nemo was a boy who had fantastic adventures in his dreams. The artist Winsor McKay was a master of inventive, surreal dreamscapes. Like this one."

"Oh," Belldandy said. "I just thought it looked like a Roger Dean painting."

Urd stumbled and almost fell. She stared at her sister for a long moment. "Uh, yeah... that too," she said.

"What now?" Scraps asked. "What now? What now?" She danced about in her floppy, carefree manner.

"If I had to guess," the Glass Cat said, "we need to travel down the road. But you can stay here if you like."

"That's right," Urd said. "What do we do? Follow the yellow brick road!"

After a moment of silence, the Tin Woodsman said, "I certainly don't want to be rude, but this road is not made of yellow brick."

"No," the Scarecrow said. "It's made of grey stone. The only yellow brick road I know of is the one in Oz."

Urd glared at them. "I _said_, humor me."

"Oh," the Scarecrow said. "I forgot. Yes, good joke. Ha ha."

"Thanks."

"But are we safe from the witch?" the Scarecrow asked. "Won't she just follow us here?"

"She very well may," Urd replied. "But the artifacts the she has stolen -- the magic picture, the magic belt, and Glinda's book of records -- will not be of any use to her now."

"They won't?"

"That's right!" Belldandy said. "I should have realized! Those objects have no power in the land of dreams, which runs by its own rules, laws, and logic."

"Indeed," Urd said. "Few things of power on Earth hold any sway in this land, for dreams are among the hardest things in existance to control. But remember, the witch Andreologo fashioned her spell of sleep while in the land of dreams."

"She did?" the Scarecrow asked. "How did you know that?"

"She really doesn't," the Glass Cat said. "But it makes sense, for all of the reasons Urd just listed. Since the magic picture and Glinda's book of records don't work here, Andreologo could have planned her revenge from the land of dreams without fear of being discovered."

"Exactly," Urd said. "I suspected as much, but now I'm certain. When she took not only they Yggdrasil library's Book of Records but also the Book of Dreams, I knew my guess was right. She knew that the Book of Dreams would reveal how she crafted her spell."

The Scarecrow nodded his head excitedly. "I see it now! It's quite clever, when you think about it. But without the Book of Dreams, how will we know how the spell was crafted or how it can be undone?"

The Glass Cat rolled her pretty emerald eyes. "Use your famous brains for once," she said. "The witch stole the Yggdrasil _copy_ of the Book of Dreams..."

If a painted face could look astonished, then the Scarecrow's face did. "Of course!" he exclaimed. "There's still the original Book of Dreams! That would belong to the Dreamlord, then?"

"Yep," Urd said. "I sincerely doubt our little Miss Witch has stolen _that._

"Now, we should assume that Andreologo's a formidable magician even here, for she's studied the laws of dream magic. But while I'm sure we haven't heard the last from her, I don't think she'll visit this land herself. Not physically, anyway. I suspect that the Lord of this realm is none too pleased with her by now, and would take exception to another visit. And I can assure you, she is no match for Morpheus in his own realm. Not even close."

XXX

The road led up to a giant castle, with wide marble steps leading up to a massive door. The door was guarded by three giant creatures -- a wyvern, a gryphon, and a pegasus. They sat perched above the door and stared down at the strange group of travellers. The wyvern, red-scaled and dragon-like, sat in the highest spot directly over the door, his head moving this way and that like that of a snake. The grypon, with brown feathers and fur and a golden beak, sat on a shelf to the left of the door. To the right sat the pegasus, with beautiful white hair and huge white-feathered wings folded against its back.

"Welcome to the castle of the Dreamlord," the gryphon said. "Please state your names and your business here."

Belldandy curtsied gracefully. "If it please you, Lord Gryphon, my name is Belldandy, goddess first class, and this is my sister Urd, goddess second class. Our companions are the Scarecrow, Emperor Nick Chopper the Tin Woodsman, Scraps the Patchwork Girl, Tik-Tok the Clockwork Man, and Bungle the Glass Cat, all residents of Oz. We seek an audience with the Lord of Dreams. We seek permission to travel within his realm, for we must do so in order to unravel a spell that was cast here."

The grypon inclined its head. "You may enter," it said. "It seems that the Lord anticipated your arrival. Please step through the door, and wait in the lobby."

"Thank you very much, Lord Gryphon," Belldandy said. "And good day as well to you, Lord Wyvern and Lord Pegasus."

As the travelers passed under the gaze of the three gatekeepers and through the door, the glass took time to examine the three strange creatures. "Don't stare, Bungle," the Tin Woodsman said. "It's rude to do so."

"But I've never _seen_ creatures such as these," the glass cat replied. "In any case, if a cat may look at a king, then certainly a cat can look at a pegasus. I have the right."

The pegasus whinnied softly and said, "Nor have I ever seen a creature such as yourself, glass cat."

"Naturally," the cat replied, "as I am the only one. Aren't I the most beautiful thing you've ever seen? Oh, but you are quite beautiful as well, Mr. Pegasus."

The pegasus said nothing in reply.

Just inside the doorway was a wide hallway, with a ceiling that was too high to be seen. The hallway ran straight to the right and left of them until it, too, vanished in the distance. Across from them was another large door. It was closed.

Presently a figure came walking down the hallway. The Scarecrow exclaimed, "Why look! It's our friend Jack Pumpkinhead!"

And indeed the fellow walking towards them looked remarkably like Jack Pumpkinhead, with thin stick-like arms and legs and a head like a carved pumpkin. However, this person walked with a worldly assurance that was completely unlike the Jack they knew, and he also was smoking a cigarette. He wore a rumpled white shirt with a blue tie and blue overalls and carried a ladder over his shoulder.

"It can't be Jack, you know," the glass cat said. "Surely Jack is still an emerald statue back in the Emerald City jail cell."

"What did you call me?" he asked. "Pumpkinhead?" He paused to take a puff on his cigarette, and added, "Is that supposed to be some kind of slur?"

"Oh no," the Tin Woodsman said. "It's just that you look very much like a friend of ours named Jack Pumpkinhead."

"Jack Pumpkinhead? Kind of a dumb name, ain't it?"

This comment stunned the Ozians for a moment. "I-I'm sure it's always suited him quite well," the Scarecrow managed to stammer.

"Don't get me wrong," the man with the pumpkin head said. "I'm just speaking my mind. I mean, Jack, that's an okay name. You can tell he's a regular guy with a name like that. Salt of the earth, not afraid to get his hands dirty. Right? But Pumpkinhead?" He indicated two of the travelers. "They might as well call you Scarecrow and Tin Man. How stupid would that be?"

"But that _is_ what they call us!" the Scarecrow said. "I _am_ the Scarecrow, and my friend _is_ the Tin Woodsman, although his given name is Nick Chopper. And my companions are the Patchwork Girl, the Clockwork Man, and the Glass Cat."  
"Huh! Guess they're short on imagination where you come from. Name's Mervyn, by the way. I'm the handyman around here, jack of all trades. I'm the guy that actually does all the work. You folks lookin' for the boss?"

"That's right," Belldandy said. "My name is Belldandy, and this is my sister Urd. We're here to ask a favor of the Lord of Dreams."

"A favor, huh?" Mervyn said. "Fat chance of that! He's not the type to grant favors for no reason."

"I think he will talk to us," Belldandy said. "We have a very good reason for being here -- we are trying to undo a spell that was cast from this realm."

Mervyn took another puff on his cigarette. "Well, good luck, that's all I can say. You'll be lucky if he gives you the time of day. I don't want to rain on your parade or anything, but take my word for it, the boss is a flake. I mean, he's all right as far as being Lord of Dreams goes, but that's just it. It takes someone a little unbalanced to even do that job, right? Not like me. I'm just a regular Joe, the guy behind the scenes who moves the props around and sweeps up afterwards. Now the boss, he takes everything to extremes. Always so moodly and serious. You ask me, he takes his job too seriously. Why, the other day..."

Mervyn paused mid-sentence, suddenly aware that someone was leaning over his shoulder. The newcomer was tall and slender, with a thin face and small round spectacles perched upon a hawkish nose. He was dressed in a crisp black suit like a butler might wear.

"Loosh!" Mervyn exclaimed. "Didn't see you coming! I was just, you know, welcoming our guests here..."

"So I see," the newcomer said. "Weren't you supposed to be adding a room to the west wing?"

"Right!" Mervyn said. "I'm on it!" He hurried down the hallway, pausing only to yell over his shoulder, "See you folks around! Good luck on your quest. Say hi to yer friend Jack for me!"

When Mervyn was gone, the tall newcomer bowed to the group of travelers. "The Lord of the Realm of Dreams bids you welcome," he said. "My name is Lucien. If you will follow me, the Lord awaits us in his throne room."

XXX

The room they were led into was much larger than any earthly throne room. In fact, although there was a floor below them and walls to either side, with rows of pillars lining the walls, everything was made of a marble so black that if you did not look directly at it, it seemed to be the night sky itself. Flecks of yellow-white dusted the marble like distant stars, and the travelers had the impression that if they strayed from the red carpet which led down the center of the room to the throne, that they might drift of into the eternal blackness of space.

It was a very long walk to the far end of the room where Lord Morpheus sat on his thrown. The travelers were all surprised to see what awaited them there, for the throne was nothing more than a rough wooden chair, and the one who sat in it wore nothing more than black jeans, black leather boots, and a black tee shirt. His skin was pale white, his hair was black and unkempt, sticking out in all directions, and his eyes were hidden in shadow.

When they'd reached the throne, Belldandy stood before them and curtsied. "Greetings, Lord Morpheus," she said. "My name is Belldandy, goddess first class, and this is my sister Urd, goddess second class. My companions are Tik Tok the Clockwork Man, Bungle the Glass Cat, Nick Chopper the Tin Woodsman, The Scarecrow, and Scraps the Patchwork Girl."

"Greetings, and welcome to my realm," Lord Morpheus said.

"Thank you for taking the time to see us," Belldandy continued. "We've come to ask a favor of you."

"Yes. You seek to travel my realm and undo a spell which was fashioned here," the Lord of Dreams said. "I am well aware of your quest."

"Why, yes," Belldandy said. "That's it exactly."

Lord Morpheus bowed. "You have the right to seek out the key to the undoing of this spell," he said. "I cannot deny you this, since the spell was fashioned in my realm. Indeed, I am not happy that my realm was used in this fashion, and I therefore grant you leave to travel where you must, and I will aid you in your quest. But you journey with companions who are not of my realm, who do not have the capacity to sleep and dream. They should not be here."

"If it pleases you, my Lord," Belldandy said, "is it not true that everything in the realm of creation dreams? The trees dream of warm sunlight and cool night, of quenching rain and of growing as high and tall as they may. The boulders dream of the cold ice flows that brought them to valleys where they lay, and of warmer days spent in the sun with flowers nestled at their feet and insects exploring their crooks and crevaces. The land itself dreams of the turning of seasons, and of warmth and life and of the ancient, violent past and of the long desolate future that stretches out before it after all life has gone. Even a man-made object such as a motorcycle dreams of flying down the open road. I know that this is all so. How then, can you say that my companions do not dream? It is true that they do not sleep, and therefore do not enter your realm as easily as any mortal might. But yet, do they not still dream, in their own way?"

The Dream Lord stared for a long moment at Belldandy, his dark eyes like bottomless, impenetrable pools of water. Finally he nodded his head slightly. "It is as you say. But just as these companions of yours do not sleep and enter my domain as freely as any mortal, it is even less proper that they enter my realm in physical form."

"If I could be so bold," the Scarecrow said, stepping forward. "I know that everything you say is true. But unlike Earth, Oz is a fairy realm. A person such as myself or my good friend the Tin Woodsman, or any of our other companions could hardly exist in a place like Dorothy's Kansas. I have always thought that lands like Oz are much closer to Dreamland than the mortal realms. It seems to me that we all come from a realm that is somewhat a part of Dreamland already."

The Dream Lord smiled for the first time. "Your brains serve you well, Scarecrow," he said. "What you say is not exactly true, but yet there is truth in your words. There _is_ a connection between fairy realms such as Oz and Dreamland itself, but it is not so easily defined.

"In any case, I believe that two of you who have journeyed here from Oz will be essential to the completion of this quest. Therefore I grant you leave to travel with the Goddesses Belldandy and Urd."

"You are most gracious, Lord Morpheous," Belldandy said, once again curtsying low. "If I could, there is one more favor I would ask of you..."

"Speak."

"You have in your library a Book of Dreams, which records important events that occur within your realm. It would be most helpful if we could study it. It might tell us something about how this spell was cast and how it may be undone."

"Indeed. You have a copy of this book in the library at Yggdrasil, do you not?"

"We did," Belldandy said. "The witch Andreologo has stolen it."

"I know." The Lord of Dreams stared down at them for several long moments. "I have never been happy that such a copy of my book existed outside of my realm," he said. "I am even less happy that the security of Yggdrasil is so lax as to let it be stolen."

"My apologies, Dreamlord. I would not have thought it was possible myself, but the witch has access to some _very_ powerful magic items."

"Yes." After several long moments, the Lord of Dreams said, "I will let you consult my Book of Dreams, but when all this is through, I wish that your copy of my book be turned over to me or else destroyed. I do not wish for such a book to exist outside of my realm, where anyone may learn what I am doing at any moment. Do you agree to this request?"

"I can't make that promise," Belldandy said. "I'm afraid that is a decision best left to the Almighty."

"That is fair enough," Lord Morpheus said. "Very well. You may look at my book, and I will discuss this matter with Him later."

The Lord of Dreams stood. "Belldandy, Urd, if you will follow Lucien, he will show you to the library. As for your companions..." Morpheus paused, then held out his hand. A small blue light appeared above his palm, and then floated down to where the Ozians stood. "Follow this light," he said. "It will lead you to a room where you will wait. Do not stray or wander from the path. There are many dangers within my dwelling, and I can not be held responsible for what happens if you do not do as I ask."

XXX

The Ozians followed the floating blue light out of the throne room and down a long hallway. Soon the light went through a doorway to the right. They found themselves in a small room with several chairs and a couch and a coffee table covered with dog-eared magazines. There was a water cooler in one corner, and a small television hung from the ceiling. It looked, in fact, very much like a waiting room at a hospital or hair salon or auto repair shop – until you noticed that the magazines bore such titles as "Dreams Illustrated" and "Field and Dream". The television was disturbing too – there was a channel changer on the table, but each channel seemed to display some kind of dream. As such the scenes were chaotic and without plot, or rhyme or reason.

Tik Tok, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodsman seated themselves and waited patiently. Scraps bounced about the room and did somersaults, and occasionally spouted random silly rhymes. Bungle watched her with a bored, disdainful look that only a cat can manage, then got up and paced about the room.

"This room is boring," Bungle said.

"Yes," the Scarecrow replied. "I believe that's the point. Waiting rooms are designed to be boring, I've found."

"I wish I could do some exploring," the cat said.

"Don't," The Scarecrow warned. "You heard what Lord Morpheus said to us."

"Yes, I heard," the Glass Cat replied. "Don't worry. His warnings are much like those from Glinda: I take them seriously. Still, it's a shame. I'm sure there are many wonderful things in this place, and I may never get another chance to see them again."

"Quite likely never," the Scarecrow agreed. "There's nothing for it but to wait."

Soon a young elf girl appeared. Unlike most of the fairies of Oz, she was quite homely and bedraggled-looking, but she had a pleasant smile. "My name is Nuala," she said. "Is there anything I can get for you? Food? Drink? A pillow, perhaps?"

"I'm afraid none of us eat or drink," the Tin Woodsman said. "Nor do any of us sleep. I think we are quite fine for the moment."

"I would like to explore a bit," the Glass Cat said.

"I'm sorry," Nuala replied. "I can not allow you to leave this room. She waved to something on the wall by the door. "If you need anything at all, just push this button, and I'll come by."

"Thank you very much," the Tin Woodsman said.

"Enjoy your stay," she said, and disappeared.

XXX

It was several hours before Urd and Belldandy finally returned. Belldandy had a round mirror hanging from a silver chain around her neck. It was like an oversized pendant, for the mirror itself was more than six inches across and far too large to be worn just for decoration. Urd had a large black canvas bag slung over one shoulder.

"What did you find out?" the Scarecrow asked.

"A very great deal," Belldandy replied. "Urd and I will tell you all about it as we travel. But we have quite a journey ahead of us, so we'd best get going."

Lucien appeared right behind them. "If you would follow me," he said with a slight bow.

He led them down a long corridor and into a very large room. It was something like a dance hall, with an inlaid marble floor, an arching ceiling decorated with crystal chandeliers, and tall pillars lining the walls. In the center of the room was a very large four-poster bed.

Scraps immediately jumped up onto the bed and began bouncing around on it. Belldandy floated up and settled upon the thick blue comforter. "Come on up," she said.

"Why, it's only a bed," the Scarecrow said. "I thought we were going to travel without delay."

"We are," Belldandy said. "For this is more than just a simple bed. It's a magical traveling bed, which the Dreamlord has lent to us for use on our journey."

"A traveling bed?" Scraps asked as she bounced about. "How does it work? How does it work?"

But the Scarecrow was examining the legs of the bed. "Why, I believe it can walk," he exclaimed.

"Indeed it can," Belldandy said. "What better way to travel the land of dreams than upon a walking bed? With this, we will travel safely. Lord Morpheus has also given me a magical mirror to aid us in our quest, and a supply of food for Urd and I. He was _most_ gracious."

"All aboard! All aboard!" Scraps cried out gleefully. But when everyone was gathered upon the soft mattress, the bed remained still.

"How is it supposed to move?" the Tin Woodsman asked.

"It's just a bed," the Glass Cat said. "It's not going anywhere"

"No, that's wrong," Urd said. "It won't move until we're all dressed for sleep, or at least, those of us who _can_ sleep. That's how it works."

Belldandy clapped her hands together. "That's easily fixed! Oh, this is going to be fun!"

Raising her hands and speaking in a beautiful language that none of the Ozians understood, Belldandy cast a spell. Moments later, she was dressed in a white cotton nightgown, while Urd was wearing a much more revealing black neglige.

Instantly the bed began to walk forwards. It moved with a gentle, rocking gait, like that of a boat on an ocean.

No sooner had the bed began to move, than a raven flew down and settled upon the headboard. It took one look at the Scarecrow and the Glass Cat and ruffled its feathers, but it did not leave.

"Good day to you, friend raven," the Tin Woodsman said.

"Hi there," the raven said. "You're the Tin Woodsman, right? And the Scarecrow, the Glass Cat, Scraps and Tik Tok. I know about all of you. You can call me Matthew."

"Good day then, friend Matthew," the Tin Woodsman corrected. "Are you intending to come with us?"

"Looks like," the raven replied. After a moment he added, "Not really my idea, but I do what the boss says."

"The boss? Then you serve the Dreamlord?"

"Yeah, I'm his raven," Matthew said. "Not the first. He's had quite a few over the years, I'm told, but of course he's been alive for just about forever. I've only been his raven for a few years. Before that, I was a human living on Earth."

"Did it hurt?" Scraps asked.

"Did what hurt?"

"Being turned into a raven?"

"Not at all!" Matthew said. "In fact it's been quite interesting, so far. I'm sure there are plenty of worse things that might have happened to me."

"I've always felt that way," the Tin Woodsman said. "I was once a man of flesh and blood, but I've found that, for the most part, I don't miss it at all."

Quickly it became clear that they were in no ordinary hall, for they continued to travel between the rows of pillars with no end in sight. The ceiling overhead grew dark, until they could no longer quite see it, but only sparkles of light reflecting off the chandelier crystals. The marble floor changed from white to green. The columns to each side of them gradually faded to brown.

With a start, they realized that they were no longer in a long pillar-lined hall. The black overhead was the night sky. The sparks of light were not reflections on crystal but stars. The green underneath was grass, and the brown columns to either side of them were the trunks of trees.

They were now traveling through a wooded forest. Presently, they came to an open area where the trees were sparse. Dotted among the trees were various shallow pools. Moonlight reflected off of each dark surface.

"How very beautiful," the Tin Woodsman said.

"The Woods Between the Worlds," Urd said. "Or something very near like it. The Dreamland equivalent, I should say. Within each of these pools is a seperate dreamland, I think."

"Each pool is a seperate world?" the Scarecrow asked.

"That's correct," Urd said. "From here, traveling to any dream world is as simple as finding the right pool and jumping in."

"I see," the Scarecrow replied. "But then... how do we know which pool we want?"

Belldandy held up the mirror that hung about her neck. "This mirror will point the way," she said. "One of its enchantments is to always point to that which you seek."

She spoke a few words in a strange language. Instantly a beam of light shot out of the mirror, pointing into a deeper area of the woods. The bed ambled along, nimbly avoiding the other pools, until it came to the one that the mirror light was pointing at. Without a pause it placed one wooden foot into the pool. The pool seemed to expand suddenly and draw them forward. In a moment the entire bed, with everyone on it, sank below the water.

They fell down and down into a sea of deep dark blue. It felt as if they were floating down through something thicker than air, but not as thick as actual water.

After a moment the Scarecrow cried, "Why, I'm not wet at all! I was afraid that Scraps and I would become all soggy, and that Nick and Tik Tok would rust!"

"They're not really pools, you know," the Glass Cat said. "They're more like portals."

"That's right," Urd said. "As I said, each pool is a gateway to a different dream realm."

They dropped faster now, towards a small pinprick of light that rapidly expanded into a sphere of bright light and color. In moments they'd fallen into the sphere, and then suddenly they were dropping out of a crystal blue sky toward a golden field of grass. The bed settled lightly onto the ground and for the moment stood still.

"Welcome to wherever we are," Urd said.

XXX

"But where are we?" Scraps asked. "Where, oh where?

"Where in Dreamland did we go?

"Up or down, I do not know!

"Drifting here and drifting there

"Falling down into the air

"Jump into a pool and see!

"Come into a dream with me!"

"Who knows _where_, exactly?" Urd asked. "We're in one of the outer Archipelagos of Dreamland. Don't ask me which one. There are thousands and thousands of them. But I believe it's here that we'll find one of the people we seek."

"Well," said the Scarecrow, "I've always said that if you keep moving forward, you're bound to wind up somewhere interesting. But do we have a specific goal in mind? What are we searching for?"

"A way to break the spell," Bungle said.

"Yes," Belldandy said. She held up the mirror again, and another beam of light shot out across the fields and off into the distance. Instantly the bed began to amble across the fields in the direction of the beam.

"This could take a while," Belldandy said. "So now is a good time to explain everything that Urd and I have learned."

The others waited patiently. Urd dug around in her black bag and produced a tea tray, upon which she set a plate of cookies, a steaming tea kettle, and two tea cups. Belldandy smiled. "Perfect!" she said, pouring tea for herself and her sister. After taking a long sip of tea, Belldandy began her tale.

"As you know already, we're here to break the enchantment of sleep that the witch Andreologo has placed upon the Emerald City," she said.

The others nodded their heads in agreement.

"Good," Belldandy said. "Now let me tell you what we've learned from the book of Dreams, and what we've been able to piece together. First, and I do not yet know why, but Andreologo has some sort of quarrel with Glinda the Good. I believe Glinda banished her from Oz."

"Peo-ple are rare-ly ba-nished from Oz," Tik Tok said.

"Then it must have been something very serious," the Tin Woodsman said.

"She's a witch," the Scarecrow said. "Most likely she refused to stop practicing magic. That would be enough for Glinda to banish someone from Oz."

"That could be it," Belldandy said. "We won't know for certain until we speak with Glinda. But in any case, we know a little of what happened afterwards.

"For years Andreologo plotted her revenge. She was very careful," Belldandy said. "She lived a quiet life on Earth, where she posed as a kindly old woman who helped run an orphanage in a place called Guatelamala. Such a simple life, filled with good deeds, was not likely to attract Glinda's attention or arouse her suspicion."

"Are you certain?" The Scarecrow asked. "I don't think someone with so black a heart could act so good and kind."

"Perhaps her heart is not as black as you think," Belldandy said.

The Tin Woodsman nodded his head. "I'm sure her heart is as red as anyone's," he said. "And if she has a heart at all, then she cannot be _all_ bad."

"I don't believe that at all," the glass cat said. "Whether her heart is black or red, or whether she has one or not, she is still a wicked witch, and she's up to no good."

"We won't know the full truth until we confront her," Belldandy said. "But let me continue. By day she was good and kind and did nothing to alarm Glinda. By night, while she slept, she traveled the land of dreams and plotted her revenge upon Glinda and all of Oz."

"Ah!" the Scarecrow exclaimed. "So Urd was right! And Glinda's book couldn't have warned her of that.".

Belldandy smiled. "Exactly. Glinda's book is a wonderful thing and a great source of knowledge, but it is often cryptic and very short on details. Moreover, it can only tell Glinda what is happening in the physical world. As the witch plotted her revenge only from the land of dreams, Glinda had no chance of being forewarned."

"Then what do we know of this spell?" the Glass Cat asked. "How can we undo it?"

"We know a great deal about it," Belldandy said. "The witch was extremely clever in the creation of her spell. She learned a whole new branch of magic -- dream magic -- specifically because she could not hope to defeat Glinda using magic found in Oz. She also set many safeguards against the destruction of her spell, for she meant for it to last for all eternity. But with magic this strong, there must always be a way left to defeat it. That is part of the rules. And so, there _is_ a way that the spell can be undone, but it will not be at all easy."

"Yes, yes," the cat said. "_How_ can it be undone?"

"To undo the spell, one must awaken Princess Ozma."

"Is that all?" the cat asked. "It sounds very easy."

"It is not at all easy," Belldandy said. "Princess Ozma is not asleep in the Emerald City, but here in dreamland itself. Her body has been placed at the center of a special dreamworld, at the center of the spell itself. This dreamworld has been constructed in such a way that no single person may penetrate it. Only five champions of the five realms of Oz, working together, may enter the area of the spell."

"I do not think it should be too hard to find five champions willing to try," Nick Chopper said. "Why, you have at least two right here in the Scarecrow and I."

"That's true," the Scarecrow said. "Nick and I have had many adventures together, and helped save Oz on many occasions. We are ready to do whatever must be done. And if Tic-Toc, Scraps, and Bungle are willing, then there's your five champions right there."

Scraps laughed and bounced around the bed, singing,

"Five champions of Oz to break the spell!

"Five champions of Oz to make things well!

"Five champions to wake the princess,

"And ask her if she really missed us!"

Belldandy smiled at the Patchwork Girl's rhyme, but said, "It's a bit more complicated than that. There are a host of rules attached to the spell. First of all, men or boys may not pass through the outer ring of the spell, so these champions must be female."

"Oh," said the Scarecrow, crestfallen. "Well, at least Scraps and Bungle..."

"Nor can they be animals or non-living things," Belldandy said, "although each champion may carry a small animal companion. In fact, the spell absolutely _requires_ that they have such a companion."

"That still leaves you and Urd as possible champions," the Tin Woodsman said.

"There's still more," Belldandy said. "They may not be older than twelve years of age. Therefore, the champions must all be young girls."

"That's a lot of conditions," the Scarecrow said. "What we need are Dorothy and Betsy and Trot, but they are all asleep. Still, I should think we can find five girls in Oz willing to try and save Ozma and everyone else."

"They will need special abilities, including magic," Belldandy said.

"Glinda has ruled that no one may work magic in all of Oz, save her and the wizard," the Tin Woodsman said doubtfully.

"Well, we are not in Oz," Belldandy said, "but there is a bigger problem. They may not be from Oz. That is the last part of the spell -- the champions must be girls who were not born in Oz and who have never lived in Oz."

"Champions of Oz, who have never lived in Oz?" the glass cat exclaimed. "Why, that's preposterous! Who ever heard of such a thing?"

"The witch did not mean for it to ever happen," Belldandy said. "Probably it never _would_ happen, naturally. But things are different now. You have me to help you, and Urd, and the magic given to me by Lord Morpheus. We can _make_ it happen."

"How will we find these champions?" the Scarecrow asked.

"That," Belldandy said, "I will reveal when the time comes. But the first part of it is easy. Only the rulers of a land may choose their champion, so we must find the rulers of each of the five lands of Oz."

"Then you've found one of them already," the Scarecrow said, "for my friend Nick Chopper here is the Emperor of the Winkies. But as for the others, they are all asleep in the Emerald City, victims of the witch's spell."

"All except Ozma," Belldandy agreed. "She's trapped at the center of the spell itself. But do not worry. Glinda, the good witch of the South, may be asleep in the Emerald City, but she is here in Dreamland as well. And the same is true for Joe King and Queen Hyacinth of the North, and King Cheeriobed and Queen Orin of the East. We will be able to find each of them in turn somewhere in Dreamland and help them choose a champion. As for Ozma, is it not true that when she leaves the Emerald City, she often places the Scarecrow in charge?"

"That is true," the Tin Woodsman said. "The Scarecrow was once King of the Emerald City and is a wise ruler. Ozma places great trust in him, as do all in Oz."

The Scarecrow looked as if he were about to blush, although of course he couldn't. Instead he said, "Do I get to choose the champion of the Emerald City? If so, then let Nick and I choose right now!"

Belldandy shook her head. "Patience," she said. "Let us find the other champions first. There is no need to drag others into our adventure before its necessary. First, we seek Joe King and Queen Hyacinth, rulers of the land of the Gillikins."

The others agreed with the wisdom of this, and so the group settled down on the bed and waited to see where it would take them. All, that is, except Scraps, who continued to jump and bounce around on the springy mattress.

The bed strolled over fields and hills and through dark forests. Soon the two goddesses were sound asleep. The others held quiet conversations throughout the night or relaxed and enjoyed the gentle swaying of the bed as it ambled along under the stars.

XXX


End file.
